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HOCKENHEIM, July 17, 2014 (F1plus/Graham Keilloh).- Despite this season’s relative struggle world champion Sebastian Vettel was today hopeful that his home round of the German Grand Prix this weekend would be the scene of an upturn. He expressed confidence in getting a good result and refused even to rule out a win.

“Well, I hope I can turn things around and that we can have a good race on Sunday and a good weekend in general’ Vettel said. But of course we are not the favourites going into the weekend but there's always a chance of winning.” He added.

Vettel also reflected on his first home Grand Prix victory 12 months ago: ‘Yeah, obviously (winning the German Grand Prix) last year was very special - I had been trying many times before, so it was definitely a good feeling to succeed. I think this year should be a very good weekend."

But while last year’s success was at the Nurburgring Vettel noted too that the Hockenheim circuit that F1 visits this time has a particular place in his affections.

“For sure, this circuit is very special to me because my home town is only 30 minutes from here, it's where I grew up’ he said.

“I also started go-karting not far from here, just around the corner, so a lot of memories. I know a lot of people that work here, so it always feels like a second home. In that regard it would be nice. So definitely a very special place for me, special memories. “

Vettel was also mindful of the fervour of Germany’s recent World Cup win and hoped that some of it would be to his benefit too.

“Obviously the whole of Germany still has the German flags from the World Cup around, so it would be nice to see a lot of those on the track and get a little bit of that support as well here on the circuit.”

When asked why there currently are so many German drivers in F1 right now, Vettel attributed much of it to the trail of Michael Schumacher.

“Obviously, for us, to some extent we're the generation after Michael and Michael was a big inspiration, so for sure, when Michael made Formula One really a sport in Germany and made it big a lot of fathers with their sons went to the go-kart tracks and wanted to do like him.

“I think it's chances, in the end, if you have a thousand kids trying rather than ten, the chances that one or two end up in Formula One are obviously a lot greater.”

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